BENNINGTON- An artist of great breadth and musical integrity, pianist Katherine Chi is one of Canada’s fastest rising stars. As the first Canadian and the first woman to win Canada’s Honens International Piano Competition, she has performed throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe to great acclaim, bringing a commanding technique and musical acumen to the concerto and recital repertoire. Friday, June 28, Chi will be performing at The Bennington Center for the Arts.

Chi gave her debut recital at the age of 9. A year later she was accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. She continued studies with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received her master’s degree and graduate and artist diplomas. She later studied for two years at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Other teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Galina Eguirazarova, and Wassily Lobanov. Chi was a prizewinner at the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition before winning the Honens Competition. Her debut recording features works of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.

Sought after as a concerto soloist of musical and technical distinction, Chi is noted for the breadth of her repertoire. While hailed for her interpretations of Mozart, she is also acclaimed for performances of major romantic and 20th-century concertos.

Chi has given memorable recitals in Hamburg, Milan, Rome, and Salzburg. She has appeared with the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver; Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra; and the Calgary, Edmonton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, Philadelphia, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria Symphony orchestras.

As this is the 200th anniversary of the birth year of both Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, Chi has chosen to play a selection of their work. The program will include Schmachtend, Eine Sonate in A flat major, Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and Spinnerlied aus Der Fliegenden Hollander by Wagner, and Aida Danza Sacra et duetto finale and Il Trovatore Paraphrase by Verdi. She will also perform Sonata No. 27 in E minor by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The performance will begin at 8 pm at the Bennington Center for the Arts, a nonssprofit venue located at 44 Gypsy Lane on Vermont Route 9 just west of Bennington. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door. For more information call (802) 442-7158 or visit www.TheBennington.org.